Manic Street Preachers  - Critical Thinking

If to suggest that Manic Street Preachers suffered from the strength of their own caricature – angry young men with a message; a still since unrivalled ability to combine politics and pop for chart success – is an exaggeration, then at least the way that fifteenth album ‘Critical Thinking’ starts goes some way towards misdirecting the bulk of the trio’s latest. On its opener and title track, Nicky Wire straddles a line between sarcasm and menace to list a series of platitudes atop a Franz Ferdinand-like strut, channelling a Black Mirror-esque indie sleaze. But, as painfully timely as Wire’s questioning where the titular skill has gone is, ‘Critical Thinking’’s vibe isn’t matched until endearingly wonky closer ‘One Man Militia’ kicks in, its earworm of a chorus offering a wide-eyed fist-pump moment alongside snippets of self-awareness (“Even our dreams are intellectual,” its chorus begins). 


Sandwiched between these, however, are a series of songs which straddle the line of comfortability. ‘My Brave Friend’ and ‘People Ruin Paintings’ in particular make use of familiar chord patterns, while ‘Hiding In Plain Sight’ brings to mind ‘90s Britpop’s wistful storytelling in its arrangement, and ‘Decline & Fall’ evokes mid-era Pulp in its structure. Which is to say, none of this is bad - in fact, it’s a collection of classic pop/rock songwriting - but when introduced with the kind of fanfare it is (and yes, compounded by the band’s past work), it feels safe. It’s like riding a picturesque model railway route after having been suggested a rollercoaster, perhaps.